Bennett runs his hand through his hair, his eyes running over me again as he asks, “Fuck! Is she okay?”
Deke shrugs. “We’re waiting for an update from Shelby.”
Bennett shakes his head and clears his throat, clearly shaken up.
I tilt my head and watch the way he swallows. How he shuffles from foot to foot. Did he know what Kellan was going to do? Was this their plan all along? To fucking play Deke and me? Kellan said that Austin was always meant to die for the game … Just how many were playing against me?
“What do you want me to do?” he asks Deke, but his eyes stay on Kellan’s dead body.
“Cole and I need to get back to the clubhouse and shower. The cops are gonna come looking for him. They know he was there. We need you to dispose of the body.”
He nods. “I’ll call Shane—”
“No!” I interrupt him, finally speaking. “No one else gets involved. Can you take care of it or not?” I don’t trust Shane. He was always defending Kellan. If he had any involvement in hurting Austin, he will be the next one I take care of.
“I got it,” he answers without hesitation.
I bend down, satisfied with his answer because I don’t have time to stand around at the moment. The clock is already ticking. I begin to pat down Kellan’s pockets and find both of his cell phones. All of us have two. Just like when we forced Austin into the group, we gave her a backpack, and it also had a new phone in it.
I pull them out and throw one to Bennett but keep the other one. I slide my finger across the screen to unlock it and frown when I see that he has a recording app open. I go to the last thing recorded and press play.
“I don’t think …” Trenten whispers to Monroe.
“I don’t care what you think,” he growls. Then he looks at me and presses play. He thinks it has incriminating evidence of me on there. And he wants to see my face while he plays it.
Fuck him!
“Please, baby?” Celeste’s whiny voice comes through the speaker and then sniffs. “Let’s just take the money and go.”
“No,” Kellan says in a clipped tone. “That’s not what we agreed on.”
“What do you expect me to do? I’m gonna start showing soon.”
“I don’t want a fucking kid,” he growls.
She begins to sob. “I can’t play it off as Bruce’s.”
“Then you should have taken your birth control correctly.”
“We need to act sooner,” she whispers. “We can pull it off—”
“I’ll do what I want when I want,” he snaps, interrupting her.
“Please?” Celeste begs. “Don’t do this.”
“It’s over,” Kellan growls. “It’s been over. But you refuse to believe it.”
“You can’t do this …” Celeste’s voice trails off. “Austin.” She sounds surprised. “I didn’t expect you to be home so soon.”
“I’m going to bed,” Austin answers, and my chest tightens.
I’ve already heard this once, but that doesn’t make this time any easier. She had just arrived home, not knowing what she walked into. In less than ten minutes, she’s going to be dead lying on her father’s kitchen floor.
“Have you told her?” Kellan demands.
“Tell me what?” Austin asks. No one answers her. “I’m tired, and it’s too late to play games with you, Kellan. What has she not told me?”
“All her secrets,” he says simply.
“Kellan, don’t—” Comes Celeste’s panicked voice.
“I don’t have time for this,” Austin says.
“Why do you think you’re here?”
“Excuse me?” Austin asks Kellan.
“It’s ’cause I wanted you here,” he answers.
And my jaw tightens. That motherfucker was playing us from the beginning. I should have done more than just break his fucking jaw before I killed him.
“What?”
“I was with Celeste when your mother called her and said that you were too much for her. That it would make Celeste look like a saint in this city to take in Bruce’s troubled teen. But she didn’t want you. She wanted Lilly.”
“What?” Austin asks again. You can hear the panic starting to rise.
“So you still haven’t figured it out yet.” He sounds proud of himself. “What she did. What she is capable of.”
“Don’t,” Celeste growls at him.
“She can keep a secret, babe,” he tells her. “Celeste, here, killed Betty, Cole and Lilly’s mother.”
Monroe’s brows pull together in confusion. They don’t understand it. Why would he? No one would understand why Celeste would kill my mother. They don’t know that Lilly’s father is Bruce.
“It was an accident,” Celeste says defensively.
“Don’t lie,” he growls.
“You what?” Austin asks shocked. “Why would you …”
“At first, everyone suspected Liam or Bruce, but no one could figure out why they would kill her at nine months along. If they were going to do it, they would have done it the moment they found out she was pregnant. But when Celeste found out she was pregnant, she was pissed. She wanted a baby. She wanted to have Bruce’s child. But Bruce didn’t want kids. So, Celeste went over to her house and confronted her. Said that she wanted joint custody of Lilly, and when Betty said no, she pushed her down the stairs.”
That fucking bitch killed my mom, and I never knew it! Never even suspected it. I let her take care of Lilly and never knew what she was capable of.
“I told you all of this in confidence,” Celeste barks at Kellan.
He continues. “Then she called 911 and said she heard her fall down the stairs. As if she cared about her pathetic life.”
“No!” Austin says slowly, still refusing to believe it. “Cole said she fell and died in surgery due to complications.”
He laughs. “Cole only knows what Celeste told him. She waited thirty minutes before she called for help. Lilly was delivered in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Betty was dead by the time they arrived at the hospital.”
“You son of a bitch!” Celeste shouts at Kellan.
“And now you’re gonna see history repeat itself,” he calls out.
You hear some commotion, and Celeste cry out. “Back up!” he orders.
And I can only guess that he’s speaking to Austin.
“Keep them up!” he snaps, and I imagine he is pointing his gun at her.
The same make and model of my gun. But all they gotta do is open my magazine, and they’ll see all but one bullet, which is chambered. I’m sure they already have. It’s probably sitting there, chamber cleared and magazine empty.
“Okay, okay, okay,” Austin says, and her voice shakes.
“See …” He goes on. “Celeste is pregnant.” She starts to sob. “With my child. After getting Betty pregnant, Bruce had that situation fixed so it would never happen again. That rules him out. And I’m the only other guy you’ve fucked, right, baby?” he asks.
Celeste continues to sob but doesn’t answer out loud.